of fixed
habitation) welcomed these ready-made conclusions of the daily press and
blindly adopted them as their own.

Individual character counts for less in the metropolis of the United
States than it does anywhere else in the nation. There are several
reasons for this, but the principal ones are a lack of time on the part
of the permanent residents to inform themselves on such matters and a
lack of interest in the subject on the part of the remainder of the
population. The result is, that when charges are made, with any degree
of sanction from the constituted authorities, against ordinary citizens
of hitherto blameless lives, the great majority of the people accept
such charges as well founded until they are effectively disproved.

So it was in this case. Just as soon as the incriminating facts
seriously involved Dr. John Earl it was taken for granted that he was
guilty, and such presumption was certain to grip the public mind until
his innocence could be duly established, if such result were at all
possible.

This was also the golden opportunity for the Bourbon members of his own
profession to assail his theories and, secretly and openly, certain of
them charged that the result in Dr. Earl's case was but the natural one
where "standard methods" of practice were set aside for the, as yet,
"unscientific paths of suggestive therapeutics," as these reactionary
medical men denominated Earl's system, for he had cured through
suggestive methods a score of patients who had been condemned to the
operating table by other surgeons, and as a result he had aroused the
resentment of such surgeons in particular and the condemnation in
general of all those who believed in the supreme curative power of the
knife.

Those in other walks of life, who, from conviction or selfishness, were
opposed to disturbing present conditions, and who appreciated and
feared the interdependence of the whole progressive movement, were also
easily convinced that, properly enough, he was in the toils of the law.

It was not long until his friends and defenders began to realize that a
secret sentiment was being created against him which had for its purpose
the discrediting of his mental stability, as well as his medical
methods, and that they would be compelled to combat not only menacing
facts and conditions, but also the still more powerful influences of
centuries of prejudice against men of his type, who had dared to get too
far ahead of the gene